Confidence
by Doc Lee
Summary: After the run in with The Clock King, Oliver discovers an interesting ability of Felicity's. Fluff. More friendship that Ship, but can be taken either way.


Here's something that popped into my head after seeing Time of Death (so spoilers up to that episode). Fluffy, but not cavity inducing levels. IIRC Emily Bett Rickards mentioned in an interview for season one that she had taken Gymnastics at school, which is wherethis plot for this originated.

I wanted this to be a 'I'm awesome, but sometimes not completely' angle from Felicity after the episode, and I've kinda fallen back on the basis of some of my own confidence issues (though as a guy, mine didn't come from where Felicity's do in here). So if she comes over as OOC, then that's the reason.

Hope you enjoy. All comments and constructive criticisms are welcome, and encouraged.

Disclaimer - the people that own Arrow are the people that own Arrow. I am not one of those people.

* * *

Holding the lair door open and cautiously glancing behind him, Oliver frowned when a battle cry rang out from the lair floor. Recognising the voice as belong to Felicity, Oliver almost barrelled down the stairs before skidding to an astonished halt.

'You have failed this city!' Oliver watched as Felicity launched herself off a table, her body performing a surprisingly graceful backflip, the green leather clad Blonde giggling as she landed. Oliver couldn't tear his eyes of team Arrow's IT genius as she fired off a series of kicks to the nearby dummy.

'Ha!' Felicity spun on one leg, her bare foot cracking against the dummy repeatedly, her soft cry accompanying each hit. Turning to grab nearby batons, she twirled the small black weapons in her hands. Her grip on the left one failed and Oliver had to duck to avoid the low flying object.

'Oops,' Felicity giggled, her right arm whacking at the dummy, 'dunno how Sara manages to keep hold of these things.' dropping the baton, Felicity stretched, Oliver's eyes following her arc, and threw herself into a series of backward flips across the mats.

Oliver jaw dropped as his mind taunted him, 'You've kept her hidden down here and she can do this?' Felicity's foot swung up to connect with the dummy's head, 'Hmm, she's flexible.'

'How the hell did you miss this?' Oliver heard the question in his head, the thought almost missed as Felicity let out a bloodcurdling cry, the bottle blonde throwing herself at the dummy. Flipping her body about, she wrapped her legs around the dummy, her forward motion lifting it from the floor and throwing it across the mate, 'That's not the training I've seen her do with Diggle?'

An ear splitting shriek suddenly rang out, Felicity flailed about and ending on her butt as she stared in shock at Oliver, who belatedly realised he'd voiced that last thought out loud.

'How long we're you watching?' Felicity scrambled to her feet, her face red with embarrassment.

'Long enough to know that you are highly flexible,' Oliver looked impressed, 'you've been holding out on me Felicity. Where did you learn to do all of that?'

'I took Gymnastics at High School for a while,' Felicity shrugged, her gaze avoiding Oliver's amused eyes, 'Mom thought it would be good for me, but i stopped after a few months. I kinda mixed in some of the stuff Dig has taught me and some stuff i saw on Youtube with the moves I can still pull off.'

'Why did you stop?' Oliver frowned, perching himself on a nearby stool, 'You're good.'

'I popped almost overnight,' Felicity blushed hard, her hand waving over her body, 'it was a mixture of my body suddenly deciding it was going to be completely uncoordinated, jealous classmates and my own embarrassment. I just stopped going and threw myself into my passion for technology.'

'The more time passed,' Felicity began to fiddle with the zipper on the hoodie, 'The less confident I was and the less likely it was that I could go back to the classes. Mom didn't help either.'

'Why?' Oliver asked gently.

'My Mom was,' Felicity winced, 'And probably still is, the poster woman for 'If you got it, flaunt it!' and she couldn't understand why I didn't wanna flaunt it.

'Needless to say I've not had the best of confidence,' Felicity shrugged, 'Ever I guess.'

'Is that why you've stolen my clothes?' Oliver smirked and pointed at the jacket.

Felicity sighed, 'I know I'm capable of doing anything I want to, both on and offline. I'm intelligent, sassy...'

'Beautiful,' Oliver added to Felicity's embarrassment.

'That too,' She shrugged, 'I've worked my way back up the confidence chain, but there are still a couple of things that kicks my issues off and someone brand new being able to do things I can't is a big warning sign. Sara coming in and able to not only test you and Diggle physically, but be able to run science-y things knocked me back a bit.'

'Then Tockman killed my babies,' Felicity looked pained at the memory, 'He broke through firewalls I'd spent months building in seconds, destroying it all. I was right back to being the geeky teen with a Mom who berated her for wearing a turtleneck in the winter.'

'You go out there almost every night in this get up and you're nigh on invincible,' Felicity picked at a loose thread, 'I just needed to borrow some of that invincibility tonight. Top up my confidence kinda thing. I was going to have the leathers cleaned and put back before you realised they were missing.'

'Why didn't you come talk to me?' Oliver stepped over to where Felicity nervously stood, 'i meant what I said last year. If you need someone to talk to, I'm nearly always here.'

'Thats the thing about when I have a leaky confidence valve,' Felicity sighed when Oliver pulled her in for a hug, 'I feel stupid because I know I'm better than how I'm feeling. I know I have the ability and I end up keeping mute because I'm just going to look like an idiot if I tell people.'

'I wake up every night in terror from the fact I'm constantly fearing someone I love is going to be killed again, 'Oliver admitted simply, 'There's only been one night since I returned that I've not woken up screaming.'

'When was that?' Felicity frowned, her hooded head tucked under Oliver's chin.

'The night of the great Skittle debacle,' Oliver chuckled, 'aka the night I crashed at yours. I'm still thinking of stealing that couch for down here.'

'Tough, it's mine!' The snarky reply was accompanied by a long sigh.

'Each time I wake up I feel stupid for letting myself get to such a point,' Oliver sighed, 'no one is invincible Felicity. Not even me.'

'Next time you feel down, or feel the first seeds of doubt popping up,' Oliver pulled her chin up gently, 'You will tell me what's wrong. I don't care if it's something as simple as you're wearing odd socks or the latest run in with Isobel. You will come to me and I won't let you let yourself get down.'

'You've made me a better person,' Oliver answered the frown on her face, 'made me see past the killer I was and even though I still don't agree that I'm a hero that Starling needs, because of you I know I'm not a monster. I can't let you prop me up at the expense of you Felicity.'

'So you'll get me up when i'm down,' Felicity realised too late where her mouth was going, 'And I'll get you up... Oh God!'

Oliver chuckled, squashing down the thought that Felicity in his Arrow leathers was enough to get him up as she inadvertently put it.

'Before I stick my other foot in my mouth,' Felicity sighed, 'I should get this back on the dummy.'

'Or the mannequin,' Oliver shrugged, a soft giggle breaking across the lair, 'Maybe you should show me some more moves before you get out of my clothes.'

The stretch of silence that passed over the large room was heavy with innuendo. It was broken by a snorted giggle from Felicity, which grew into loud laughter and accompanied by Oliver's first true laugh in a long while.

Diggle frowned at the sight of his friends almost peeing themselves laughing when he arrived a few minutes later, 'Who opened the laughing gas?' Oliver and Felicity shared an amused glance before erupting into louder laughter, Diggle walking away muttering something about lunatics escaping the nut house.


End file.
